New exhibition offers heartwarming glimpses into this Australian life
The finalists for the Australian Life 2024 photography competition are in. Their images will make you do a double take.
Cassandra Scott-Finn
Two years ago, Cassandra Scott-Finn – a multidisciplinary artist from Byron Bay – and her young son Cassius visited the remote NT community of Ramingining. There, they befriended a Yolngu boy, Boyca, and it spawned a “beautiful friendship” between the two families. “We’d go out hunting and fishing every day with them, and Boyca would teach us how to stalk animals,” says Scott-Finn. “He’s a great kid – fun-loving, confident and full of energy.” They’ve been paying occasional visits to each other’s worlds ever since, as she works on a photographic project about Boyca and his mob. He’s pictured this year outside the Eltham Pub in northern NSW, where they stopped for hot chips after he’d done a spot of busking with a didgeridoo outside Woolies. “He’s wearing Cassius’s judo kit,” she explains. “Boyca loves to raid our wardrobes for interesting stuff to wear – every day’s like a catwalk show.” The 12-year-old, who had never been out of his homelands before meeting Scott-Finn, is pictured with her Afghan hound Daisy, with whom he formed a close bond. “He’s now back in the Northern Territory and whenever we FaceTime he’s like, ‘Can you put Daisy on? I’ll get my pet kangaroo so they can talk together!”
David Cossini
Every year at the Parkes Elvis Festival, the town’s rugby union club – the Boars – play a match at Pioneer Oval with all 30 players dressed as the King. There’s a ref, and they play to the rules (up to a point), but it’s also about fun. There’s a little bit of drinking involved. “Instead of running water out at half-time or during a break in play, we run out wine,” says one member, adding for clarification: “White wine for rehydration, and red wine for sponging.” Photographer David Cossini, a former pro rugby player, got up close to the action with a wide-angle lens to capture this shot.
Hank Paul
“The entire nation held their breath for 17 minutes during the Matildas’ epic penalty shootout against France in the women’s World Cup last year,” says wedding photographer Hank Paul. It was the longest penalty shootout in World Cup history – and even this wedding crowd in Albion Park, south of Wollongong, NSW, interrupted their revelries to watch the spectacle, the high drama writ large in their expressions. The result, if you need reminding? The Matildas prevailed, 7-6, to book a spot in the semi-final against England. But the less said about that match, the better…
Adam Ferguson
Is there any corner of the world untouched by Taylor Swift fever? Shauna and Bridget, self-described “cousin sisters” from the NT community of Wadeye, are pictured relaxing after practising cultural burning out near Airforce Hill. “Thanks to the internet, these young women – from an ancient culture, in a very remote part of the country – have access to pop culture and all the ideals and dreams that come with it,” says photojournalist Adam Ferguson, who made his name covering international conflicts before embarking on a decade-long project, Big Sky, documenting life in the Australian bush. His book of the same name will be out in September.
Bryce Waters
Jon Odams, a four-time national mountain bike champion, crosses the line to win the inaugural PsychoCross event in January. The challenges of the race – comprising four laps of a bush course in suburban Wollongong, NSW – included a hill so steep that a $200 prize was put up for anyone who could ride up it. Only Odams managed it. The winner’s trophy? A plaque on which brake levers, a chain and other bike parts had been glued, and the whole thing spray-painted gold. Planning is now underway for the next PsychoCross event, to be held in a multi-storey car park in Wollongong.
Chrissie Hall
Photographer Chrissie Hall and her daughters Alaska and Zali take dress-ups to the next level. In the past seven years they’ve done more than 100 themed photoshoots dressed as astronauts, magicians, ballerinas, sailors, pilots, superheroes, bees, butterflies and band members from KISS, among other things. In this self-portrait – shot at the wonderfully atmospheric Victoria & Albert Guesthouse at Mount Victoria in NSW’s Blue Mountains – they’re channelling Victorian-era vampires, complete with rented costumes, wigs, make-up and vampire teeth. “This project is a way to bring the girls into my creative world,” says Hall. “Getting dressed up and having fun … it’s who we are.”
Rhebeka Stangret
After a scorching summer’s day at Inglewood, in Queensland’s Goondiwindi Region, sunset brought blessed relief. “As it finally cooled down, the place came alive with birds and insects,” says Canberra photographer Rhebeka Stangret, who shot this image of her son Conan, four, turning a hosepipe on his Lego figures in the dirt. This land, and its 1940s-era shacks, was once a tobacco farm attached to a camp for refugees who’d fled war-torn Europe. Stangret’s father was born there, and after a long career in the Navy he bought the place and is now living there happily in retirement, fishing in the nearby river and tending to his chooks. “For Dad, it’s gone full-circle,” she says.
The Australian Life outdoor exhibition opens at Customs House in Circular Quay on August 2, as part of the Art & About Sydney festival.
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